Lesson sequence
Wisdom of Solomon 19: The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction
Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5; Wisdom of Solomon 19:6–12; Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17; Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22
Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5 reflects on a sharp reversal. The passage says the ungodly first sent God’s people away eagerly, then changed their minds and pursued them, and it explains that turn as part of a foolish path toward judgement. This lesson also brings together Renewed creation opens a road and recalls astonishing provision, Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment, Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care.
Before you teach
In this Catholic additional book, the writer addresses God and speaks about “your people” and “the ungodly”. These verses do not retell every earlier event. Instead, they interpret the pursuers’ change of mind by stressing God’s foreknowledge, their mourning, their forgetfulness, and the different end awaiting each group.
Explain the central teaching of Wisdom of Solomon 19: The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction, using two details from the reading. This passage presents the pursuers’ reversal as a foolish, deserved movement toward judgement, while God’s people continue on the way God has opened for them. This passage teaches that the Lord used creation in astonishing ways to protect, lead, and provide for his servants, and that such acts call for remembering and praise. Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17 presents hostility and cruelty toward guests and aliens as serious wickedness that receives just judgment. This passage presents changing creation in poetic language and ends by praising the Lord for magnifying, glorifying, and standing by his people.
Your lesson sequence
Use the teaching outline below for each session, with these reading and activity choices.
The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction
Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5
This passage presents the pursuers’ reversal as a foolish, deserved movement toward judgement, while God’s people continue on the way God has opened for them.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Renewed creation opens a road and recalls astonishing provision
Wisdom of Solomon 19:6–12
This passage teaches that the Lord used creation in astonishing ways to protect, lead, and provide for his servants, and that such acts call for remembering and praise.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Wisdom of Solomon 19:6–12. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment
Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17
Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17 presents hostility and cruelty toward guests and aliens as serious wickedness that receives just judgment.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care
Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22
This passage presents changing creation in poetic language and ends by praising the Lord for magnifying, glorifying, and standing by his people.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Welcome: Wisdom of Solomon 19: The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction
5 minIntroduce “The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction”, “Renewed creation opens a road and recalls astonishing provision”, “Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment”, “Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care” and locate Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5; Wisdom of Solomon 19:6–12; Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17; Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22. This passage presents the pursuers’ reversal as a foolish, deserved movement toward judgement, while God’s people continue on the way God has opened for them. Invite each learner to name a detail or question they will listen for. Choose the reading for today’s session from the sequence above.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:1, Wisdom of Solomon 19:3, Wisdom of Solomon 19:5
Read and explain the passage
12 minThe pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction (Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5): The passage begins with a strong statement: “indignation without mercy” came upon “the ungodly to the end”. It also says God “foreknew their future”. This means the writer presents their outcome as already known to God and moving toward its full end, not as something uncertain or unexpected.
Renewed creation opens a road and recalls astonishing provision (Wisdom of Solomon 19:6–12): The passage begins with a sweeping statement: “the whole creation” was “made new again”. This is not presented as random power, but as creation “complying with your commandments”. The purpose is also clear. God’s servants were kept “unharmed”. The focus is on God’s command and the safety of his people.
Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment (Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17): The passage opens by saying punishments came upon sinners with signs given beforehand, including violent thunder. Their suffering is called just because it answered their own wickednesses. The first sin named is their grievous hatred toward guests, so the passage connects judgment directly to how they treated vulnerable people.
Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care (Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22): Verse 18 begins with a comparison. Notes on a lute can vary the character of a rhythm while the sound continues, and the passage says the elements changed their order in a similar way. This image prepares the reader for language about change without losing coherence or purpose.
Read the selected verses together, pausing at “The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction”, “Renewed creation opens a road and recalls astonishing provision”, “Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment”, “Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care”. Use the source reading below and check the explanation against the words of the passage.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:1, Wisdom of Solomon 19:6, Wisdom of Solomon 19:13, Wisdom of Solomon 19:18
Discuss the details and their meaning
8 minUse the three questions below. Begin with “What change in behaviour does the passage emphasise in the pursuers?” and allow time to find the supporting verses. This passage presents changing creation in poetic language and ends by praising the Lord for magnifying, glorifying, and standing by his people. Ask learners to explain which details support their answer and to identify a question they would like to explore further.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:2, Wisdom of Solomon 19:16, Wisdom of Solomon 19:17, Wisdom of Solomon 19:18
Make and respond: Wisdom comparison cards
12 minWork on “Wisdom of Solomon 19: The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction: Wisdom comparison cards”. Follow the materials and steps below, using “The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction”, “Renewed creation opens a road and recalls astonishing provision”, “Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment”, “Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care” as reading headings. Each learner should include at least two accurate details and their verse references. Share one observation from the finished sheet and explain how it connects with the central teaching.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:1, Wisdom of Solomon 19:12, Wisdom of Solomon 19:22
Closing: return to Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care
3 minRevisit Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22. Invite a learner to summarise what the group has learned about Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care and another to support the summary with a verse. Give learners a moment to complete their response sheet. They can share a question or, if appropriate for the group, join the optional prayer.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:18, Wisdom of Solomon 19:20, Wisdom of Solomon 19:22
Questions to explore
What change in behaviour does the passage emphasise in the pursuers?
Notice the movement from letting God’s people go and hurrying them on their way to changing their minds and pursuing them.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:2
What contrast in verses 16 and 17 highlights the seriousness of Egypt’s treatment?
Trace the movement from welcoming with feastings to afflicting with dreadful toils, then to the comparison with loss of sight and darkness.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:16, Wisdom of Solomon 19:17
How does the comparison with a lute help you read the rest of the passage?
Notice that Wisdom of Solomon 19:18 speaks of variation within continuing sound, which helps frame the later examples of changed order.
Wisdom of Solomon 19:18
Make, think or respond
Wisdom of Solomon 19: The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction: Wisdom comparison cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or pens
- a Bible or the source reading on this page
Try it together
- Fold a sheet into three panels or draw three columns. Label them “What the passage commends”, “What it warns against”, “The reason or outcome stated”.
- Read Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5; Wisdom of Solomon 19:6–12; Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17; Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22. Use “The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction”, “Renewed creation opens a road and recalls astonishing provision”, “Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment”, “Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care” as your reading headings and add a short quotation or detail with its verse reference to each panel.
- Compare your notes with a partner. Check that every quotation is accurate and every conclusion has support in the passage.
- Write a proposed everyday example beside one teaching. Label it as your example and explain which words in the text guided it.
The finished sheet keeps the details of Wisdom of Solomon 19: The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction connected to their Bible references and gives the group a way to explain what they noticed.
Adapt for your group
- For learners who need more support, prepare the reading headings “The pursuers reverse their decision and move toward destruction”, “Renewed creation opens a road and recalls astonishing provision”, “Cruelty toward guests links Egypt with another remembered judgment”, “Changing elements conclude the praise of God’s faithful care” and let them match short quotations to the correct heading.
- For confident readers, compare two sections of Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5; Wisdom of Solomon 19:6–12; Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17; Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22. Ask for a written explanation with two supporting references and one question that the text leaves open.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us listen carefully as we read Wisdom of Solomon 19:1–5; Wisdom of Solomon 19:6–12; Wisdom of Solomon 19:13–17; Wisdom of Solomon 19:18–22. Help us understand what we have read, ask thoughtful questions and respond with care for others. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Wisdom of Solomon 19
1 But indignation without mercy came upon the ungodly to the end; for God also foreknew their future,
2 how, having changed their minds to let your people go, and having sped them eagerly on their way, they would change their minds and pursue them.
3 For while they were yet in the midst of their mourning, and lamenting at the graves of the dead, they made another foolish decision, and pursued as fugitives those whom they had begged to leave and driven out.
4 For the doom which they deserved was drawing them to this end, and it made them forget the things that had happened to them, that they might fill up the punishment which was yet lacking from their torments,
5 and that your people might journey on by a marvelous road, but they themselves might find a strange death.
6 For the whole creation, each part in its diverse kind, was made new again, complying with your commandments, that your servants might be kept unharmed.
7 Then the cloud that overshadowed the camp was seen, and dry land rising up out of what had been water, out of the Red sea an unhindered highway, and a grassy plain out of the violent surge,
8 by which they passed over with all their army, these who were covered with your hand, having seen strange marvels.
9 For like horses they roamed at large, and they skipped about like lambs, praising you, O Lord, who was their deliverer.
10 For they still remembered the things that happened in the time of their sojourning, how instead of bearing cattle, the land brought forth lice, and instead of fish, the river spewed out a multitude of frogs.
11 But afterwards, they also saw a new kind of birds, when, led on by desire, they asked for luxurious dainties;
12 for, to comfort them, quails came up for them from the sea.
13 Punishments came upon the sinners, not without the signs that were given beforehand by the violence of the thunder, for they justly suffered through their own wickednesses, for the hatred which they practiced toward guests was grievous indeed.
14 For while the others didn’t receive the strangers when they came to them, the Egyptians made slaves of guests who were their benefactors.
15 And not only so, but while punishment of some sort will come upon the former, since they received as enemies those who were aliens;
16 because these first welcomed with feastings, and then afflicted with dreadful toils, those who had already shared with them in the same rights.
17 And moreover they were stricken with loss of sight (even as were those others at the righteous man’s doors), when, being surrounded with yawning darkness, they each looked for the passage through his own door.
18 For as the notes of a lute vary the character of the rhythm, even so the elements, changing their order one with another, continuing always in its sound, as may clearly be conjectured from the sight of the things that have happened.
19 For creatures of the dry land were turned into creatures of the waters, and creatures that swim moved upon the land.
20 Fire kept the mastery of its own power in water, and water forgot its quenching nature.
21 On the contrary, flames didn’t consume flesh of perishable creatures that walked among them, neither did they melt the crystalline grains of ambrosial food that were melted easily.
22 For in all things, O Lord, you magnified your people, and you glorified them and didn’t lightly regard them, standing by their side in every time and place.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.